*My* five Seahawks impressions from the first quarter of the 2012 NFL season

2 – 2 through the first 4 games

Root word is impress, as in I would like to see the Seattle Seahawks impress me over the next quarter of the season.

Past tense is impressed, as in the Seahawks defense really impressed me during the first half of the Monday Night Football game against the Packers.

Impressions? Now that is a totally different word all together. My top 5 impressions may not all be positive.

But there are a few that are for sure.

Starting with:

5: The Seahawks run game

Through four games Marshawn Lynch has carried this offense almost completely on his own.

Lynch is averaging just over 100 yards per game so far, with two touchdowns, and a yards per carry average of 4.6.

Nothing too spectacular yet out of Lynch, but we have to remember that this is the same guy who had some off-season legal problems, then missed much of the preseason with an injury.

He was still listed as questionable the first couple weeks of the season, all the while rattling off nearly 100 yards a game for the Hawks.

Robert Turbinhas been a nice boost for a backup, but his numbers are nowhere near where I thought they would be at this point in the season.

So far this season, Marshawn Lynch has been most of the offensive production. Photo Credit: Yahoo Sports

This could all relate to the Hawks not wanting to fix what isn’t broken in Lynch as well though.

4: Control of the clock

As with any run heavy offense, the time of possession gets racked up pretty quickly.

The Seahawks hold the edge over their opponents by just under 3 minutes so far this season. A true testament of a team that can take over a game when need be.

The Seahawks very well could be sitting at 4-0 right now, and none of this Russell Wilson/Matt Flynn talk would have been brought up by anyone.

But truth is, you can control the clock all you want, but if you can’t put the ball in the endzone, then there’s no point in it.

As bad as some think Wilson is doing, he still does have 4 TD passes through 4 weeks. Not great, but it is enough to have us a .500.

3: QB Situation

The dilemma of nearly every NFL head coach at one point or another in his career is the QB controversy situation.

Here in Seattle we were all ready to have Pete Carroll’s head if he didn’t name Russell Wilson the starter coming out of the preseason.

Now, after the first 4 games, I for one, am second guessing that decision.

Sure Wilson is mobile, and sure he is still only a rookie, and not all of the mistakes can be directed solely on him, but in this league, it’s win, or get your butt back to the bench.

Pete Carroll has been called a lot of things over his tenure in the college ranks, and the NFL as well, but one thing that he surely is, is true to his guns.

If Russell Wilson is his man, than he is his man no matter what the situation of the field is.

I just hope that he can motivate his players to rally around the rookie and get this thing righted before it’s too late.

Thanks to his perfomance against the Packers, Chris Clemons leads the way with Seahawks sacks

2: Special Teams

Blocked punts, 7 of 8 on field goals, punts inside the 20, and yes, even a TD have been the story line of the Seahawks special teams so far this season.

Special teams is often one of the forgotten categories when looking at a teams stats, but this unit makes it hard to pass them by.

They single handily set the tone early in the rout of Dallas in week two.

Early in the 1st quarter they had a fumble recovery, FG, blocked punt, and a TD to set us up with an early 10 pt lead that we never looked back on.

One of the standouts of this unit last year was Leon Washington. Leon isn’t quite having the numbers we would have hoped for just yet, but the season is still early, and believe me, he will break one for a TD very soon.

1: Defense

Of course the defense ranks number 1 in my list. They have been unbelievable so far early on.

Well, the rush defense has, the secondary isn’t exactly tearing it up like the professionals expected them to be.

But when you have a front four that can get to the QB as often as ours has been able to, the secondary can slack a bit if they want to, right?

Through 4 games, the Hawks have only allowed 251 rushing yards. That is an average of 62.75 rushing yards against per game. Whereas the Hawks have averaged 150.75 for a plus/minus of 88 yards per game.

The passing numbers are quite a bit different though. Pass yards against are 852, for an average of 213 ypg, while our passing offense is averaging a mere 130.75.

The biggest number here is the sacks. Hawks have 12 on the year, while giving up only 8. But, take away that performance against the Packers and this number dwindles down to 3. Not a good number at all, is it?

Standouts so far on defense have been Bruce Irvin, mainly for his game against Green Bay, and Chris Clemons, same thing.

Once again, it’s still early though, and I don’t think we should hit the panic button too prematurely. (Even though I already did earlier this week).

So for here on out, or at least till the next quarterly report, I think the 12th man’s motto should be one of our Northwest favorites, it’s still early.

After week 12, if this ship still isn’t righted, we can all take up the original favorite motto of the Northwest: